Light duty liquid or gel dishwashing detergents with good grease removal benefits are much desired by consumers. Calcium and magnesium ions have been added to certain liquid or gel detergent compositions to improve, grease cleaning benefits. However, it is often difficult to formulate a stable, concentrated liquid or gel dishwashing detergent composition containing calcium ions from typical ion sources such as calcium chloride and/or calcium formate.
It has been found that when a substantial amount of the calcium ions needed in a liquid or gel detergent composition containing from about 30% to about 75% surfactant are added as calcium xylene sulfonate, the stability of the composition is surprisingly improved.